The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF

order to shorten the front of the Serbian Army and to give the enemy his turn of the bad conditions amongst which the Serbians had been fighting until then.

All these facts and considerations led the Serbian generals to propose the withdrawing of the army nearer to the base. This move, however, was postponed owing to political and moral reasons, as they feared the effect which would be produced by the occupation by the enemy of a large part of Serbia. But the Austrians with overwhelming forces and powerful artillery began the offensive along the whole front, compelling the Serbs to retreat at the beginning of November.

Even the most orderly retirement presents enormous difficulties. One of the gravest was the lack of good roads. Roads in Serbia had never been good, but during the three months of constant warfare they had become quite impassable. The troops which had taken part in the action at Machva, and had retreated from Sabac to Lazarevac, were not attacked and were able to occupy previously chosen positions on the right bank of the river Kolubara. The others, which had fought in the Guéevo and Yagodnya Mountains during the retreat to Valevo, met with some resistance at Pecka, Zavlaka and Kamenica, but it was easy to see that the Austrian troops attacked reluctantly and rarely took full advantage of their successes, such as the loss by the Serbians of some twenty

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